F659Z Spring 2024 Youth Justice

F659Z  Youth Justice
Friday, 11:00—12:25, May 10
One session
The Providence, 9490 Sprague Avenue, Fairfax, 22031
Note location and time
Instructor: Lillian Brooks
It’s difficult enough to be a teenager in 2024. Along with all the classical challenges of growing up with typical pressures of school grades, parents, first loves, and friends, teenagers today have TikTok, gun violence, cyberbullying, political division, remnants of COVID-19, and climate change to worry over. But what about adding on poverty, poor schools, trauma, drugs, and parental abuse and neglect? When young people decide to act out their anger and stress by committing crimes, how can the juvenile justice system best respond so that their well-being and the safety of the community are fairly addressed? This discussion will provide a view of the juvenile justice system in the United States, reforms that are being implemented, and others that are necessary in order to yield better outcomes for youth, their families, and the community.
Lillian Brooks, JD, practiced criminal and family law in Atlanta, Georgia, before coming to Virginia in 1984. She then became director of juvenile and domestic relations court services, retiring in 2012. She is the president of OLLI. She is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University.